A Practice-Based Re-Appraisal of Transitional Justice as a Proto-Theory of Thick Accountability in Contemporary Justice Struggles

In the past decade, transitional justice (TJ) language and practices have increasingly been mobilized across a wide range of contexts that challenge foundational assumptions and approaches of the paradigm. This article draws on empirical insights emerging from a wide range of cases to argue that this expansion of TJ can partly be explained by the fact that it offers a more multi-dimensional and encompassing understanding of accountability than, for example, a human rights framework. This “thick” understanding of accountability includes more sites, actors, strategies and objectives than a purely judicial approach, which makes it particularly appealing to grassroots justice actors dealing with complex and multi-layered injustices, also in contexts where no political transition took place. Their engagement with TJ challenges the concept of TJ as a relatively self-contained set of practices, since TJ is often mobilized as part of a broader justice ecosystem, which it impacts and is impacted by. I argue that both the notion of TJ as a proto-theory of thick accountability and that of TJ as part of a broader justice ecosystem, offer starting points for re-appraising what the language and practice of TJ can do to further contemporary struggles for justice and human rights, and that this should be further theorized.